GYOTO(1) User Manuals GYOTO(1)
NAME
Gyoto - the General relativitY Orbit Tracer of Observatoire de Paris
SYNOPSIS
gyoto [--silent|--quiet|--verbose[=N]|--debug]
[--imin=i0] [--imax=i1] [--jmin=j0] [--jmax=j1]
[--time=tobs]
[--fov=angle] [--resolution=npix] [--distance=dist]
[--paln=Omega] [--inclination=i] [--argument=theta]
[--] input.xml output.fits
DESCRIPTION
Gyoto is a framework for computing geodesics in curved space-times. The gyoto utility program uses this framework to compute images of
astronomical objects in the vicinity of compact objects (e.g. black-holes). Such images are distorted by strong gravitational lensing.
gyoto takes a scenery description in XML format (input.xml), computes this scenery using relativistic ray-tracing, and saves the result in
FITS format.
A companion program, gyotoy(1), can be used to interactively visualize a single geodesic in Kerr metric (the trajectory of a single photon
or massive particle.
Ray-tracing can be very time consuming. It is possible to interrupt the process at any time by hitting ^C, which will save the already-com-
puted part of the image before exiting the program. You can then compute the rest of the image later using the --jmin option.
OPTIONS
-- Ends option processing, in case either input.xml or output.fits starts with "-".
Setting the verbosity level
--silent
No output.
--quiet
Minimal output.
--verbose[=N]
Verbose mode. Verbosity level N may be specified.
--debug
Insanely verbose.
Selecting a region
It's possible to ray-trace only part of the scenery by providing the pixel coordinates of the bottom-left (i0, j0) and top-right (i1, j1)
corners of the region. The bottom-left pixel of the complete image has coordinates i=1 and j=1.
--imin=i0
Default value: 1.
--imax=i1
Default value: npix (see option --resolution below).
--jmin=j0
Default value: 1.
--jmax=j1
Default value: npix (see option --resolution below).
Setting the camera position
The following parameters are normally provided in the Screen section of input.xml but can be overridden on the command line for instance to
make a movie (by calling gyoto for each movie frame, changing only the option --time).
--time=tobs
The observing time in geometrical units.
--fov=angle
The field-of-view of the camera, in radians.
--resolution=npix
Number of rows and columns in the output image.
--distance=dist
(Coordinate) distance from the observer to the center of the coordinate system, in geometrical units.
--paln=Omega
Position angle of the line of nodes, in radians, East of North. The is the angle between the North direction and the line of nodes
(see below).
--inclination=i
Angle between the plane of the sky and the equator of the coordinate system. The intersection of those two planes is the line of
nodes.
--argument=theta
Angle in the equatorial plane between the line of nodes and one of the main axes of the coordinate system.
Miscellaneous
Unsorted option(s):
--impact-coords[=impactcoords.fits]
In some circumstances, you may want to perform several computations in which the computed geodesics end up being exactly identical.
This is the case for instance if you want to experiment changing the spectrum of a star or when making a movie of a rotating, opti-
cally thick disk. This option provides a mechanism to not recompute the geodesics in the most simple case:
o the Screen is always at the same position;
o the Metric is always exactly the same;
o the Astrobj is optically thick (no radiative transfer processing is necessary);
o the location and shape of the Astrobj is always the same.
If --impact-coords is passed without specifying impactcoords.fits, the 8-coordinate vectors of the object and photon at impact point
are saved for each point of the Screen. Missing data (no impact) are set to DBL_MAX. These data are saved as a supplementary image
HDU in the FITS file which is identified by its EXTNAME: "Gyoto Impact Coordinates". The FITS keyword "HIERARCH Gyoto Observing
Date" of this HDU holds the observing date (in geometrical unit).
If impactcoords.fits is specified, the above mentioned data are read back from this file. The ray-tracing is not performed, but the
Gyoto::Astrobj::Generic::processHitQuantities() method is called directy, yielding the same result if the four conditions above are
met. The observing date stored in the FITS keyword "HIERARCH Gyoto Observing Date" is compared to the date specified in the screen
or using the --time option and the impact coordinates are shifted in time accordingly.
It is also possible to set the two versions of this option at the same time:
--impact-coords=impactcoords.fits --impact-coords
In this case, the impact coordinates are read from impactcoords.fits, shifted in time, and save in output.fits.
FILES
input.xml
A gyoto input file in XML format. Several examples are provided in the source doc/examples directory. Depending on how you installed
gyoto, they may be installed on your system in a place such as /usr/share/doc/libgyoto/examples/.
output.fits
The output image in FITS format. gyoto will not overwrite output.fits unless it is prefixed with an (escaped) "!": "gyoto in.xml
!out.fits". This file may actually consist in a stack of images depending on the Gyoto Quantities and on the Spectrometer specified
in input.xml. For further information on the FITS format, see http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
ENVIRONMENT
GYOTO_PLUGINS
Gyoto astronomical objects and metrics are implemented in plug-ins. To use more (or less!) than the standard plug-ins, you need to
set the environment variable GYOTO_PLUGINS to a comma-separated list of plug-ins. gyoto will exit with an error status if unable to
load a specified plug-in, unless it is prefixed with "nofail:" in GYOTO_PLUGINS. Default value: "stdplug,nofail:lorene". Gyoto
attempts to find plug-ins first by relying on the system's dynamic linker (so paths in e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH and ld.so.conf are
searched first). If that fails, it looks in PREFIX/lib/gyoto/ and finally in PREFIX/lib/gyoto/SOVERS/ where PREFIX and SOVERS are
two compile-time options. PREFIX usually is /usr/local or /usr. At the time of writing, SOVERS is 0.0.0.
EXIT STATUS
gyoto returns 0 upon success, 1 if unable to parse the command line or to interpret input.xml, and a CFITSIO error code if an error occurs
when trying to open, write to, or close output.fits. Refer to the CFITSIO documentation for more details.
AUTHOR
Thibaut Paumard <thibaut.paumard@obspm.fr> wrote this manual.
SEE ALSO
gyotoy(1)
Science AUGUST 2011 GYOTO(1)